"Haskil's return visit [to Boston] surpassed all expectations. A series of concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Charles Münch and an appearance at Carnegie Hall created a sensation and were reported in TIME magazine. Rudolf Eli wrote in the Boston Herald, ‘One of those most magical revelations that occurs in music once in a generation ... the most beautiful performance of Beethoven’s Third Concerto I have ever heard or expect to hear again’.

I first heard Clara Haskil’s name mentioned by Dinu Lipatti after a recital he gave in Switzerland. When I congratulated him on his Mozart playing, Lipatti said, ‘In two weeks’ time you must hear Clara play Mozart. Then you will realize how far the rest of us are from the truth’. I was young at the time, but the name stuck in my mind. Who was this mysterious Clara?

As Clara sat down the music materialized as if from nowhere. Her arm seemed to glide over the keyboard without preparation, just as a flat stone skims across the water. This was so typical of her playing; nothing seemed to start or end, and everything became timeless. Admiration and international fame came late in life for Clara Haskil, in a career beset by poor health and the adversities of a worldperfection on earth. Dinu Lipatti described her playing as ‘the sum of most beautiful in the world’, Tatyana Nikoleyeva burst into tears when she first heard Haskil...."